ISL Ports (E ports) on MDS 9509 are showing Gracefully Shutdown

[vishwa singh]

We have an ISL connection between E mode ports of two MDS 9509 Switches . (FabricA)

Upon Health Check I found that these ISL ports on both the switches are down and when I checked syslogs on both switches they show "Interface X/X Gracefully shutdown"

I checked the Cisco document for this error which says -

"The Cisco NX-OS software implicitly performs a graceful shutdown in response to either of the following actions for interfaces operating in the E port mode:

If you shut down an interface.

If a Cisco NX-OS software application executes a port shutdown as part of its function."

So no one has shut down these ports manually  and I am not sure what the second point (If a Cisco NX-OS software application executes a port shutdown as part of its function) means

I tried shut / no shut on these ports bt no go.

I need to know what could be the problem and its resolution.

[jihicks]

Hi Vishwa,

Sounds like there is a problem between switches.  Look at a "show interface" and see if it is "error disabled".  I don't know the topology, maybe optical equipment or patch panel between switches?  You can look at the signal levels on the interfaces with "show interface fcx/x after the no shut.  The signal levels are not valid if the interface is not "in sync" but you can still get an idea of no receive signal.  Do a "not shut" on both sides and look at the levels.   Look for other messages in the logs at the same time and post those here.

Best regards,

Jim